Any blueberry growers out there???

[socalgardengal]

I received 3 blueberry "cuttings" in a bonus trade. I've had them in a glass of water for 4 weeks now and just put them in to potting mix. The question I have is, will these grow roots?They look like a single leaf. They only have 1 bud on each and they are about 3-4". I don't want to waste my time trying if it won't work. I will post some pictures. Thank you. ~Christine

[socalgardengal]

I'll keep trying

[socalgardengal]

Hope these load

[socalgardengal]

Just to add..... the stems are about the width of a toothpick

[clkeiper]

Personally, I don't mess with rooting blueberries. I would say most of the ones I would want are PPAF and I really don't want to mess with the licensing to propagate protected varieties. BUT these take too long to grow to a decent size for me that it is easier to just buy blueberries at the end of the season (off the clearance rack at lowes or homedepot) and plant the larger ones. If you really want to try it< I would suggest a rooting hormone and put them in a pot of damp peat moss, cover with a cloche or plastic bag and set in the shade for the winter. just keep an eye on them so they don't dry out.( That will kill them for sure.)

[Cole_Robbie]

There's a node on the cutting, which is where the new growth will come from. The one leaf is used as food for the cutting until it has roots to feed itself. It looks like it would work as long as it stays at about the right moisture level and your stem doesn't rot.

I looked at buying rooted cuttings to sell as plants later, but it is about $1 for the cutting and it takes 3-4 years to be worth about $4 wholesale.

[socalgardengal]

Wow ok I'll see how it goes and go buy some bushes at the nursery Thank you

[peebee]

Good idea, buy 1 or 2 then you can do cuttings any time you want. You live where the Walter Anderson nurseries are; I once found their listing of bare-root plants for Fall 2011 or 2012, and they had the elusive Bababerry raspberries. I'm sure they have lots of blueberries too. For some reason I cannot locate their bare-root list this year.
I tried to root cuttings for the first time this year, I'd read that the best time was either late spring or summer. None of them took. I'll try again next year.

[Ms. Jitomate]

Dear Socalgardengirl,
I grow Sunshine Blue and Misty. I was getting ready to prune because they are 3 years old plants now, when I found this excellent presentation of a blueberry expert in Santa Clara county, California. It's a long presentation but toward the end when he goes outside to demonstrate pruning; there are many enthusiast collecting the cuttings even though he himself would rather just buy a blueberry plant unless the variety is difficult to get at his local nursery. I watched this and learned quite a lot, even from the questions people were asking him. He has a variety that is 25 years old.

http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/blueberry.html

Good luck with your cuttings!

[Hermitian]

Here's a link to a well-written analysis of Blueberry fertilizers for northern highbush varieties: http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/supp...lueberries.pdf